worth the shot

One day in December 2022, I was walking down a street in Ikeja, Lagos, and observed a man go past me, with a camera lashed to his right arm.

The camera, out in a way that demonstrated intent to use, was what piqued my interest. Street photography is a tricky thing to do in Lagos. So I abandoned my original purpose (lunch), turned around, and followed him from a “safe” distance, because I sensed I’d see something interesting.

Sure enough, this guy stops to photograph some men in military uniforms. This is a thing everyone knows you’re not supposed to do — it’s not illegal, it’s just a good way to have a bad day if they see you. But even though he was pretty close to them, they seemed to not notice, and he took a bunch of photos without incident.

By this point, I knew I wanted to talk to him, and learn what he was about, his process and approach to to making photos in an environment where people react to cameras in all kinds of ways.

So I caught up to him, and asked if I could shadow him for a day. This short film is the result.